Hebron

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This article is about the city in the Middle East. For other uses of the name, see Hebron (disambiguation).

Hebron
Downtown Hebron
Arabic	الخليل
Government	City (from 1997)
Also Spelled	Al-Khalīl (officially) Al-Ḫalīl (unofficially)
Governorate	Hebron
Population	167,000 (2006)
Jurisdiction	dunams
Head of Municipality	Khaled Osaily

Coordinates: 31°32′00″N 35°05′42″E / 31.533333, 35.095 Hebron (Arabic: الخليل (help·info) al-Ḫalīl or al Khalīl; Hebrew: חֶבְרוֹן (help·info), Standard Hebrew: Ḥevron, Tiberian Hebrew: Ḥeḇrôn) is a city at the center of the West Bank, along the eponymous Mount Hebron. It is home to some 166,000 Palestinians and 700–800 Israeli settlers.^[1][2] Hebron lies 930 metres (3,050 ft) above sea level. Located in the Biblical region of Judea, it is the second holiest city in Judaism, after Jerusalem.^[3]

The name "Hebron" traces back to the same root as Haver, or "friend".^[4] In Arabic, "Ibrahim al-Khalil" ("إبراهيم الخليل") means "Ibrahim the friend", signifying that, according to Islamic teaching, Allah (God) chose Ibrahim (i.e. Abraham) as his friend.^[5]

Hebron is located 30 km south of Jerusalem. It is famous for its grapes, limestone, pottery workshops and glassblowing factories. It is also the location of the major dairy product manufacturer, al-Jebrini. The old city of Hebron is characterized by narrow, winding streets, flat-roofed stone houses, and old bazaars. It is home to Hebron University and the Palestine Polytechnic University.

The Cave of the Patriarchs, revered by Jews and Muslims.

The most famous historic site in Hebron sits on the Cave of the Patriarchs. The site is holy to all three Abrahamic faiths, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, due to their traditional connections to Abraham. According to Genesis, he purchased the cave and the field surrounding it to bury his wife Sarah, and subsequently Abraham Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob and Leah were also buried in the cave (the remaining Matriarch, Rachel, is buried outside Bethlehem). For this reason, Hebron is also referred to as "the City of the Patriarchs" in Judaism, and it is the second of the four holiest cities in Judaism (along with Jerusalem, Tiberias and Safed).^[6] Over and around the cave itself churches, synagogues and mosques have been built throughout history (see "History" below). The Isaac Hall is now the Ibrahimi Mosque, while the Abraham Hall and Jacob Hall serve as a Jewish synagogue. In medieval Christian tradition, Hebron was one of the three cities, the other two being Juttah and Ain Karim, that boasted of being the home of Mary's cousin, Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist and the wife of Zacharias.^[7]

Adjacent to Hebron is the densely populated Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba, a separate municipality, but within several minutes walking distance from Hebron's Cave of the Patriarchs.

[edit] History

[edit] Ancient period

Hebron was an old Canaanite royal city before it became one of the most ancient cities of the Kingdom of Judah. Archeological excavations reveal traces of strong fortifications datable to the Early Bronze Age. The city was destroyed in a conflagration, and resettled in the late Middle Bronze Age. A cultic structure, with cuneiform fragments listing animals to be sacrificed, is attested from this period.^[8] It is mentioned in the Bible as being the site of Abraham's purchase of the Cave of the Patriarchs from the Hittites, in a narrative that some recent historians regard as constituting a late 'pious prehistory' of Israel's settlement.^[9] The Abrahamic traditions associated with Hebron are nomadic, and may reflect a Kenite element, since the nomadic Kenites are said to have long occupied the city,^[10] and Heber is the name for a Kenite clan.^[11] Hebron is also mentioned there as being formerly called Kirjath-arba, or "city of four", possibly referring to a federation of four townlets, or four hills,^[12] before being conquered by Caleb and the Israelites (Joshua 14:15). Hebron became one of the principal centers of the Tribe of Judah, and the Judahite King David reigned in the city until the capture of Jerusalem, when the capital of the Kingdom of Israel was moved to that city.

See also: LMLK seal

After the destruction of the First Temple, most of the Jewish inhabitants of Hebron were exiled and their place was taken by Edomites at about 587 BCE. Herod the Great built the wall which still surrounds the Cave of Machpelah. During the first war against the Romans, Hebron was conquered by Simon Bar Giora, the leader of the Sicarii. Eventually it became part of the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine Emperor Justinian I erected a Christian church over the Cave of Machpelah in the 6th century CE which was later destroyed by the Sassanid general Shahrbaraz in 614 when Khosrau II's armies besieged and took Jerusalem.

Northern Hebron in the mid-19th century (1822–1898).

[edit] Medieval period

The Islamic Caliphate established rule over Hebron without resistance in 638, and converted the Byzantine church at the site of Abraham's tomb into a mosque. Trade greatly expanded, in particular with Bedouins in the Negev and the population to the east of the Dead Sea. During this period, Muslims converted the Byzantine church at the site of the Cave of the Patriarchs into a mosque. Both Muslim and Christian sources note that Umar allowed Jews to build a synagogue and burial ground nearby, while the 9th century Karaite scholar Zedakah ben Shomron wrote about a permanent Jewish presence and described a Jewish man as the "keeper of the cave". Arab geographer al-Muqaddasi described "a synagogue and central kitchen which the Jews had set up for all the pilgrims rich and poor" at the turn of the century.

Arab rule lasted in the area, which was predominantly populated by peasants of various Christian persuasions,^[13] until 1099, when the Christian Crusader Godfrey de Bouillon took Hebron and renamed it "Castellion Saint Abraham". He then gave Hebron to Gerard of Avesnes as the fief of Saint Abraham. Gerard of Avesnes was a knight from Hainault held hostage at Arsuf, north of Jaffa, who had been wounded by Godfrey's own forces during the siege of the port, and later returned by the Muslims to Godfrey as a token of good will.^[14] As a Frankish garrison, soon governed by Tancred, Prince of Galilee, its defence was precarious, being 'little more than an island in a Moslem ocean'.^[15] The Crusaders converted the mosque and the synagogue into a church and expelled Jews living there. In 1106, an Egyptian campaign thrust into southern Palestine and almost succeeded in wresting back Hebron from the crusaders from Baldwin I of Jerusalem, who personally led the counter-charge to beat the Muslim forces off. The Damascene nobleman and historian Ibn al-Qalanisi in his chronicle alludes at this time to the discovery of relics purported to be those of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in this period, a discovery which excited eager curiosity among all three communities in Palestine, Muslim, Jewish, and Christian.^[16] Towards the end of the period of Crusader rule, in 1166 Maimonides was able to visit Hebron and wrote, "And on the first day of the week, the ninth day of the month of Marheshvan, I left Jerusalem for Hebron to kiss the graves of my forefathers in the Cave of Makhpela. And on that very day, I stood in the cave and I prayed, praised be God for everything."

Maimonides established a yearly holiday for himself and his sons, the 9th of Cheshvan, commemorating the day he merited to pray at the Cave of the Patriarchs.

The Kurdish Muslim Salaḥ ed-Dīn took Hebron in 1187, and changed the name of the city back to "Hebron". A Kurdish quarter still existed in the town during the early period of Ottoman rule.^[17] Richard the Lionheart subsequently took the city soon after. Richard of Cornwell, brought from England to settle the dangerous feuding between Templars and Hospitallers, whose rivalry imperilled the treaty guaranteeing regional stability stipulated with the Egyptian Sultan as-Salih Ayub, managed to impose peace on the area. But soon after his departure, feuding broke out and in 1241 the Templars mounted a damaging raid on what was, by now, Moslem Hebron, in violation of agreements.^[18]

In 1260, al-Malik al-Zahir Rukn al-Din Baibars al-Bunduqdari established Mamluk rule; the minarets were built onto the structure of the Cave of Machpelah/Ibrahami Mosque at that time. During this period, a small Jewish community continued to live in Hebron; however, the climate was less tolerant of Jews and Christians than it had been under prior Islamic rule. Jews wishing to visit the tomb were often taxed, and in 1266 a decree was established barring Jews and Christians from entering the Tomb of the Patriarchs; they were only allowed to climb up to a certain step outside the Eastern wall. Sir John Mandeville wrote that the Jews and Christians were viewed "as dogs."^[19] Many Jewish and Christian visitors wrote about the community, among them a student of Nachmanides (1270), Rabbi Ishtori Haparchi (1322), Stephen von Gumfenberg (1449), Rabbi Meshulam from Volterra (1481) and Rabbi Obadiah ben Abraham, a famous biblical commentator (1489). As early as 1333, there was an account from Hakham Yishak Hilo of Larissa, Greece, who arrived in Hebron and observed Jews working in the cotton trade and glassworks. He noted that in Hebron there was an "ancient synagogue in which they prayed day and night."

[edit] Ottoman rule

Throughout the Ottoman Empire rule, (1517-1917), groups of Jews from other parts of the Holy Land, and exiles from Spain and other parts of the diaspora went and settled there. Hebron at this time became a center of Jewish learning. In 1540 Rabbi Malkiel Ashkenazi bought a courtyard and established the Abraham Avinu Synagogue. In 1807, the Jewish community purchased a 5 dunam (5,000 m²) plot, upon which the city's wholesale market stands today.

In 1834 Hebron was sacked by the army of Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt. Although property was destroyed and looted, most of the Muslim population is said to have been able to flee. Within the larger sacking there was a pogrom targeted at the city's Jews, five of whom were murdered.^[20] In 1841, the population of Hebron was given, according to the number of taxpayers, i.e., male heads of households that owned even a very small shop or piece of land. There were two hundred Jews with "European protections", one Christian household, 41 Jewish households and 1,500 Muslim households, in a total population of 10,000.^[21]

[edit] Under the British mandate

In December 1917 and during World War I, the British occupied Hebron. In the 1929 Hebron massacre, Arabs killed 67 Jews and wounded 60, and Jewish homes and synagogues were ransacked. Two years later, 35 families moved back into the ruins of the Jewish quarter, but after further riots, the British Government decided to move all Jews out of Hebron "to prevent another massacre". Hebron remained as a part of the British Mandate of Palestine until 1948.

[edit] Jordanian rule

Shavei Hebron yeshiva in the Beit Romano building of the Jewish quarter in old Hebron. The modern city is visible at the top edge.

Following the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, Jordan took over the control of Hebron and the rest of the West Bank. During this time, Israelis were not allowed to enter the West Bank. The Jewish Quarter was destroyed.

[edit] Israeli rule

After the June 1967 Six Day War Hebron came under Israeli control with the rest of the West Bank.

In 1968, a group of Jewish settlers, with the tacit support of Levi Eshkol and Yigal Allon,^[22] began to reside in the city, though a government compromise soon focused the Jewish presence to the east in the new settlement of Kiryat Arba. Beginning in 1979, Jewish settlers moved from Kiryat Arba to found the Committee of The Jewish Community of Hebron in the former Jewish neighbourhood near the Abraham Avinu Synagogue, and later to other Hebron neighborhoods including Tel Rumeida.

See also: #Jewish settlement after 1967

[edit] Post-Oslo Accord

Open-air market in city being patrolled by Israeli troops (2004).

Since early 1997, following the Hebron Agreement, the city has been divided into two sectors: H1 and H2. The H1 sector, home to around 120,000 Palestinians, came under the control of the Palestinian Authority, in accordance with Hebron Protocol.^[23] H2, which was inhabited by around 30,000 Palestinians,^[24] remained under Israeli military control in order to protect some 800-900 Jewish residents living in the old Jewish quarter, now an enclave near the center of the town. During the years since the outbreak of the Second Intifada, the Palestinian population in H2 has decreased greatly, the drop in large part having been identified with extended curfews and movement restrictions placed on Palestinian residents of the sector by the IDF for security needs, including the closing of Palestinian shops in certain areas. Settler harassment of their Palestinian neighbours in H2 was a reason for several dozen Palestinian families to depart the areas adjacent to the Israeli population.^{[25][26][27][28][24]}

A busy street in Hebron

The Hebron Jewish community has been subject to many attacks by Palestinian militants since the Oslo agreement,^[29] especially during the period of the Second Intifada which saw suicide bombings, stabbings, and thousands of rounds fired on it from the Abu-Sneina neighbourhood above it. 12 Israelis were killed in one ambush of worshippers on the way to the Cave of the Patriarchs, while an infant was killed in a sniper attack.^{[24][30][31][32]} Two Temporary International Presence in Hebron observers were killed by Palestinian gunmen in a shooting attack on the road to Hebron.^[33][34]

In 1994, Israeli physician Baruch Goldstein opened fire on Muslims at prayer in the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre, killing 29, before the survivors overcame and killed him. This event was condemned by the Israeli Government, and the extreme right-wing Kach party was banned as a result.

A year later, Hebron's mayor, Mustafa Abdel Nabi, invited the Christian Peacemaker Teams to assist the local Palestinian community in opposition to what they describe as Israeli military occupation, collective punishment, settler harassment, home demolitions and land confiscation.^[35]

An international unarmed observer force—the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) was subsequently established to help the normalization of the situation and to maintain a buffer between the Palestinian Arab population of the city and the Jews residing in their enclave in the old city. On February 8, 2006, TIPH temporarily left Hebron after attacks on their headquarters by some Palestinians angered by the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. TIPH came back to Hebron a few months later.

[edit] Demographics

[edit] Jewish settlement after 1967

Star of David carved above entrance to a now Arab home in the old city of Hebron.^[37][38]

Following the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel's position was parts of the West Bank be traded for peace with Jordan.^[39]

In an interview with the BBC on July 12 of that year, Former Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion declared that, in the cause of peace, Israel should take nothing in the conquered territories, with the exception of Hebron, which 'is more Jewish even than Jerusalem'. According to Randolph Churchill, he argued that "Jerusalem became Jewish three thousand years ago under King David but Hebron became Jewish four thousand years ago under Abraham and included a number of settlements that were destroyed two days before Israel was established."^[40]

In 1968, a group of Jews led by Rabbi Moshe Levinger rented out the main hotel in Hebron, and then refused to leave. According to the American Jewish historian Ian Lustik:

The government was caught by surprise. Internally divided, depending for its survival on the votes of the National Religious Party, and reluctant to forcibly evacuate the settlers from a city whose Jewish population had been massacred thirty-nine years earlier, the Labor government backed away from its original prohibition against civilian settlement in the area and permitted this group to remain within a military compound. After more than a year and a half of agitation and a bloody Arab attack on the Hebron settlers, the government agreed to allow Levinger's group to establish a town on the outskirts of the city.

They moved to a nearby abandoned army camp and established the settlement of Kiryat Arba. In 1979, Levinger's wife led 30 Jewish women to take over the former Hadassah Hospital, Daboya Hospital, now Beit Hadassah in central Hebron, founding the Committee of The Jewish Community of Hebron. Before long this received Israeli government approval and a further three Jewish enclaves in the city were established with army assistance,^{[citation needed]} and settlers are currently reported to be trying to purchase more homes in the city.^[41][42]

Jews living in these settlements and their supporters claim that they are resettling areas where Jews have lived since time immemorial. However, some reports, both foreign and Israeli are sharply critical of the settlers.^[43][44]

The sentiments of Jews who fled the 1929 Hebron massacre and their descendants are mixed. Some advocate the continued settlement of Hebron as a way to continue the Jewish heritage in the city, while others suggest that settlers should try to live in peace with the Arabs there, with some even recommending the complete pullout of all settlers in Hebron.^[45] Descendants supporting the latter views have met with Palestinian leaders in Hebron.^[46] The two most public examples of the descendants' views are the 1997 statement made by an association of some descendants dissociating themselves from the then-current Jewish settlers in Hebron and calling them an obstacle to peace,^[46] and the May 15, 2006 letter sent to the Israeli government by other descendants urging the government to continue its support of Jewish settlement in Hebron in their names, and urged it to allow the return of eight Jewish families evacuated the previous January from the homes they set up in empty shops near the Avraham Avinu neighborhood.^[45] Beit HaShalom, was established in 2007. [1] [2] [3] One of the purchasers is a descendant of Jews who fled Hebron during Arab massacres.^[47]

A total of 86 Jewish families now live in Hebron.[4]

A military checkpoint in Hebron. Picture from documentary Welcome to Hebron

The Israeli NGO Breaking The Silence, composed mostly of former soldiers, has documented abuses committed by Israeli soldiers guarding the Hebron settlers,^[48] while Mario Vargas Llosa has written about how local Arabs are "subjected [] to systematic and ferocious harassment by settlers, who stone them, throw rubbish and excrement at their houses, invade and destroy their homes, and attack their children when they return from school, to the absolute indifference of Israeli soldiers who witness these atrocities."^[49]

The documentary Welcome to Hebron showed how violent settlers harass the local Palestinian population. ^[50] In the film, a former commander of the Israeli army, one of the leading figures in Breaking The Silence, shared his experiences as a soldier in Hebron.

[edit] Cultural, historical and sporting landmarks

Adjacent to the municipality building, the Hebron archaeological museum has a collection of artifacts from the Canaanite to the Islamic periods. The Oak Of Abraham, also called Oak of Mamre, is an ancient oak tree which marks the place where, according to tradition, Abraham pitched his tent. It is estimated that this oak is approximately 5,000 years old. The Russian Orthodox Church owns the site and the nearby monastery. Other notable sites are The Well of Abraham and the tombs of Abner ben Ner (the commander of Saul and David's army), Ruth and Jesse.

[edit] Languages and accents

This article does not cite any references or sources. (November 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Palestinian Hebronites are known amongst the Levant for their distinguished colloquial Arabic accent. Hebronites speak while stretching their words giving it a long musical sound.

[edit] Notable people relating to Hebron

[edit] See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Hebron

• Hebron glass
• LMLK seals (oldest inscription naming the city dates to 700 BCE if HBRN=Hebron)
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict
• Temporary International Presence in Hebron
• Hebron Yeshiva
• Riots in Palestine of 1929
• al-Aqsa Intifada
• Palestinian Child Arts Center
• List of burial places of biblical figures

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Photographs of Hebron
• Hebron.com - English
• Collection of Palestinian articles on Hebron published by "This Week in Palestine".

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